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Nine priests arrested in China
29/12/2006 21:18 - (SA)
Rome - Nine priests of China's unofficial underground Roman Catholic Church have been arrested in the northern province of Hebei, said the Catholic press agency Asianews on Friday.
Asianews, a Rome-based agency with Vatican connections, said the arrested clergymen had met for studies in a community about 30km south of their district at Baoding.
The motive for the arrests was not known, "but it's probable they were arrested just because they met during the Christmas period for a prayer session in a place that has not been recognised by the government", said Asianews.
There are up to 15 million Catholics in China divided into either the official church, which appoints its bishops under strict Chinese state control, and the clandestine church which tenaciously maintains links with the Vatican.
Six bishops missing
The official church claims about five million adherents, and the unofficial church as many as ten million.
According to Asianews, at least six bishops of the underground church have either disappeared or been detained in Hebei province.
News of the latest arrests follows new strains in relations between China and the Vatican last month after the Chinese state authorities approved the ordination of a new priest without the approval of the pope.
The ordination last spring of three new Chinese bishops without Vatican approval prompted Pope Benedict XVI to denounce what he called a serious violation of religious freedoms.
The strains occur against a background of ongoing discussions between the government in Beijing and the Vatican on normalising bilateral relations which were broken off in the 1950s after the communists came to power in China.
- SAPA
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